ASU quarterback Jayden Daniels: ‘I want to win a Rose Bowl’
Mar 29, 2021, 7:22 AM
Arizona State quarterback Jayden Daniels (5) throws a pass against Southern California during the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
(AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Arizona State’s football team wrapped spring practice on Sunday, but Jayden Daniels is already setting goals for the end of the upcoming season.
“Personally for me, no matter what, I want to leave a legacy,” Daniels told reporters via Zoom. “Going down the road, I want to win a Rose Bowl. … It’s been a very long time here. The fans deserve that, this team deserves it. That’s what we’ve been working for each and every day.”
To get there, though, will take continued work and chemistry-building.
In last year’s pandemic-shortened season of four games, the Sun Devils’ offense was under the lead of a new coordinator, Zak Hill, and had a young corps of receivers and running backs. Nearly all of those skill players return for 2021.
Daniels said he’s seeing a difference among his targets after the team’s spring practices.
“I feel very comfortable. I could tell out there on the field, everybody on the offense was looking more comfortable than we did last year,” Daniels said.
“Coach Hill, he’s making it real easy for us in order to go out there and play fast. And if we play fast, we’re playing confident.”
Playing fast and confident is a mantra head coach Herm Edwards repeats to his team often. However, the fourth-year ASU coach doesn’t want that confidence to be getting to any of his players’ heads.
“We don’t want anyone to get complacent or think, ‘Because I’m coming back, I’m a fifth-year senior, I get to play.’ Your reps will be taken if you don’t live up to the standard of what we feel you should play at and I think every player understands that,” he said.
“You’ve got to compete every day,” Edwards added. “You walk in this building, you’ve got to leave a better player. If not, you’re letting yourself down and the football team.”
Edwards said changes are to be expected to different positions when fall and the season begin as the team is still a work in progress, but he liked what he saw on the field in Sunday’s practice.
Most of the work now comes from getting the players to retain all they’ve learned over the course of 15 spring practices.
“It’s just a matter of regurgitating and going through the process when we come back, to continue to press upon them knowledge and knowing what to do,” Edwards said. “The enemy of football is not knowing what to do.”
